Equus recently hit the headlines when Daniel Radcliffe, teenage star of the Harry Potter series, bared all to show us he was no longer the 11-year-old boy we first saw in The Philosophers Stone. So what can we expect from all the hype? Six metal frames hang on six wooden doors; six men, muscled yet graceful, appear, walking slowly towards their place on stage. Gently, they lift the frames onto their heads. Suddenly, they are the horses.

For the current tour, rising star Alfie Allen (younger brother of Lily and son of the legendary Keith Allen) steps into Radcliffe’s shoes, starring as the troubled Alan Strang. Allen is perfect as Strang, a 17-year-old boy in trouble with the police for blinding six horses, and sent to see psychiatrist Martin Dysart, played my master of the stage Simon Callow, to avoid a stretch in prison.

Allen and Callow have a tangible link, playing off each other to show the depths of their characters. As the story develops, so does the complexity of Strang’s problem – his love of horses, in contrast to his horrific act of violence, leads us to wonder what went wrong.

By the interval, the audience is more silent than I thought possible, as Allen’s acting skills (along with his bare chest) are shown off to the limit, leaving us on the edge of our seats.

It is at the interval that it all goes wrong – a hideous clunk sounds, and ten minutes later, Simon Callow is standing in front of us, explaining that the ‘safety’ curtain has broken – the show cannot go on!

So that was that. The first half of Equus is an amazing exhibition of fantastic direction, talented old favourites and rising new ones, leaving us with so many unanswered questions – why did he do it? Will he ever change?

Equus lives up to its reputation as a complex and gripping tale of growing up, love and lust – or at least, the first half does.

A magnificent 10 out of ten.

By Eildhi Brown

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